Dr. Tom Blasingame, holder of the Robert L. Whiting Professorship, has been named the new head of the Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University, effective May 1.
He is an Honorary Member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and served as the 2021 SPE President, and he is only the second SPE president to come directly from academia. SPE is the largest individual-member organization for engineers, geoscientists, researchers, practitioners, managers and other professionals within the petroleum industry.
Blasingame’s research deals with topics in applied reservoir engineering, reservoir modeling and production engineering. He has made numerous contributions to petroleum literature in pressure transient analysis, production data analysis, reservoir development/management, reservoir engineering aspects of low and ultra-low permeability reservoirs, phase behavior, and petrophysics.
His research efforts with his students have led to the development of many reservoir engineering products; their work is referenced widely, and several of their developments have been incorporated into industry-standard software and analysis methodologies.
Aside from his duties in the classroom and guiding graduate students through research and degree paths, Blasingame served as assistant department head for graduate programs within the petroleum engineering department from 1997 to 2003. He also served in other academic service roles, such as the Faculty Senate, the Council for Principal Investigators and the local chapter of the American Association of University Professors. He has received several teaching and service awards from Texas A&M and the SPE in recognition of his efforts.
Blasingame is devoted to professional service, both at Texas A&M and externally. His greatest passion is teaching and mentoring students and early-career engineers, and he has been extremely effective in shaping the education of petroleum engineers and students throughout the world.
He began teaching as an undergraduate teaching assistant in 1983 after becoming a student in 1980. He holds a bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate in petroleum engineering from Texas A&M University.
Blasingame replaces Dr. Akhil Datta-Gupta, who served in an interim capacity since July 2022.